1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to an advanced intelligent network system for Internet service provision on a per-use basis. The present invention also provides pre-paid Internet service connections.
2. Background of the Invention
Over the last ten years, use of the Internet has grown rapidly. A large segment of this growth stems from an increase in individual dial-up subscribers. These dial-up subscribers use the public switched telephone network (xe2x80x9cPSTNxe2x80x9d) to establish connections to their Internet Service providers (xe2x80x9cISPsxe2x80x9d). In many cases, individual subscribers are required to enter into long-term contractual agreements when they sign up for Internet service. Such long-term agreements are generally required to reduce the ISP""s overhead in creating accounts and billing subscribers. However, many subscribers find such long term agreements undesirable.
Strong competition exists among the many ISPs in the marketplace for acquiring new customers and for retaining existing customers. Subscribers entering the market for ISP services may prefer trying out different ISPs before making a long term commitment to the service. Thus, rather than entering into a long-term agreement with a single ISP, such new customers may desire a system providing access to multiple ISPs on a pre-paid or pay-per-use basis. Similarly, for privacy or security reasons, subscribers may prefer the option of using several different ISPs on a recurring basis. Under the conventional systems and methods for accessing an ISP, a user would have to subscribe to many services, thereby incurring multiple monthly fees to achieve this result. Again, these subscribers may prefer a system providing access to multiple ISPs on a pre-paid or pay-per-use basis.
One reason such pre-paid or pay-per-use services are not readily available in conventional ISP systems and methods is that the overhead for tracking and billing customers outweighs the benefits of catering to the needs of these customers. Additionally, some ISPs may view such short term arrangements as cutting into their customer base without providing the financial returns to justify the cost. It is commonly known in the art that tracking and billing systems are complex and expensive to operate. To accurately bill customers for units used requires a complex infrastructure of hardware, software and personnel resources. If the monthly bill per subscriber is a low dollar amount, then bill collection procedures may not be cost-effective without additional leverage to encourage payment. For these and similar reasons, ISPs have been reluctant to provide pre-paid or pay-per-use Internet access services. Thus, there remains a need for a system that provides access to multiple ISPs on a pre-paid or pay-per-use basis and does not increase the ISPs"" overhead.
In conventional ISP systems, the PSTN is used merely to connect the caller to the ISP. The PSTN does not verify the caller and does not track the caller""s usage of the ISP""s resources. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating how dial-up subscriber 30 connects to ISP 20 using PSTN 10. Dial-up subscriber (also referred to as xe2x80x9ccallerxe2x80x9d herein) 30, places a call over PSTN 10 using computer 31, modem 32 and subscriber line 33. Within PSTN 10, the call is processed by the caller""s Service Switching point (xe2x80x9cSSPxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cswitch,xe2x80x9d herein) 11 and the ISP""s SSP 12. To support multiple connections, ISPs must maintain numerous telephone lines connected to modems. Rather than advertising a different telephone number for each telephone line, ISPs generally advertise a limited number of telephone access numbers. Each telephone access number corresponds to one or more telephone lines. These telephone lines may be made up of, e.g., individual POTS lines, one or more T1 lines, or primary Rate ISDN (xe2x80x9cPRIxe2x80x9d) lines. For simplicity, the figures and discussion herein show the connection to be made up of PRI lines 21, as shown in FIG. 1.
PRI lines 21 lead to ISP 20 where they are connected to multi-line hunt group (xe2x80x9cMLHGxe2x80x9d) 22 as shown in FIG. 1. MLHG 22 is modem pool allowing multiple simultaneous connections and is controlled by access server 23. MLHG 22 takes incoming subscriber calls and routes them to the first open modem in the modem pool. When a caller dials the telephone access number for ISP 20, from the PSTN""s point of view, the call is processed like any other call in PSTN 10. That is, the call is routed between the caller and called party (in this case, ISP 20) through one or more switches. If ISP 20""s lines are all busy, or xe2x80x9coff-hookxe2x80x9d, i.e., there are no voice communications paths available, the caller gets a busy-signal, which is provided by the PSTN. On the other hand, if lines are available, switch 12 will terminate the call to ISP 20 and it is ISP 20""s responsibility to answer the call, verify the caller""s authorization for access to ISP 20, and setup the caller""s connection to the Internet.
From ISP 20""s point of view, several intervening steps must be accomplished before granting the caller access to the Internet. When a call reaches ISP 20 via PRI lines 21 and MLHG 22, access server 23 answers the call. After answering the call, access server 23 must determine whether or not the caller should be granted access and if so, to which services. Access server 23 queries the caller for information such as a username and password for use in identifying the caller and the caller""s authorized services. The dialog between the caller and access server 23 is usually performed automatically between access server 23 and communications software operating on the caller""s computer 31.
Generally, ISPs use centralized servers to store and manage its subscriber databases. Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (xe2x80x9cRADIUSxe2x80x9d) server 24, having database 24a, shown in FIG. 1, is functionally connected to access server 23 and provides this centralized management. Thus, access server 23 collects username and password information from the subscriber and passes it on to RADIUS server 24. After RADIUS server 24 verifies a subscriber""s username and password, it provides access server 23 with configuration information specific to the caller. Access server 23 uses the configuration information to provide the authorized services to the caller. Access servers and RADIUS servers are described in more detail in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/133,299, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Additional information on access servers and RADIUS servers may be found in Rigney et al., Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), Network Working Group, January, 1997, or in Rigney et al., RADIUS Accounting, Network Working Group, April, 1997.
The conventional system and methods described above pose a further obstacle to providing pre-paid Internet services. As noted above, typically every ISP subscriber is assigned a unique username and password. Typically, the subscriber may change the password, but the username remains fixed to ensure it is unique. The combination of username and password allows for verification to ensure the user has permission (i.e., is an authorized customer) to use ISP 20""s services. Pre-paid telecommunications services are desirable in one respect because of the inherent anonymity that may be gained. However, under the current systems and methods, ISPs generally demand some means to track the usage of their resources to a specific account for billing purposes.
The present invention is a system and method for providing subscribers with pre-paid and pay-per-use access to multiple Internet Service providers (xe2x80x9cISPsxe2x80x9d). The present invention utilizes an Advanced Intelligent Network (xe2x80x9cAINxe2x80x9d) to set up and manage the services as described below. AIN systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,701,301 and 5,774,533, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. FIG. 2 shows the key components of the AIN used in the present invention. FIGS. 3a and 3b are flowcharts detailing the steps comprising a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The steps described herein can be performed by computer-readable program code operating on the various AIN components and other computer systems, as described below.
The present invention is implemented as an AIN service application. At least one telephone access number assigned to each ISP is provisioned with a suitable AIN trigger on the terminating switch. When a user, presumably using a computer and modem, calls a telephone access number having the trigger, the call is temporarily suspended while a database query is processed. The database query is sent from a Service Switching point (xe2x80x9cSSPxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cswitchxe2x80x9d) to a Service Control point (xe2x80x9cSCPxe2x80x9d), which checks to see whether the caller has blocked access to the pay-per-use service, or has an unknown number.
In a preferred embodiment, if the call is not from a blocked or unknown number, the SCP checks to see if the caller has a pre-paid subscription. If so, the SCP then checks to see whether the caller has some pre-paid units available. In one embodiment, the call is processed as a regular non-pre-paid and non-pay-per-use call if the caller is pre-paid but has no remaining pre-paid units. In an alternative embodiment the call is still processed as a pay-per-use call even when a pre-paid caller has no pre-paid units left.
In a preferred embodiment, blocked or unknown numbers are not processed by the pre-paid or pay-per-use Internet service. Instead, calls from blocked or unknown numbers are terminated by the ISP""s switch without any changes to the call parameters. In this case, the caller must have a valid account with the ISP in order to access the Internet through that ISP. Furthermore, billing for caller""s use of the ISP""s services are handled by the ISP, not by the telephone network.
If the caller is a pre-paid or a pay-per-use customer, the SCP changes certain call parameters in the call setup message, as described below, and instructs the SSP to continue processing the call with the new parameters. The SCP further instructs the SSP to inform the SCP if the line was busy, answered or the caller hung up before the call was answered. Additionally, if the call was answered, the SSP notifies the SCP when the call is disconnected. The SCP uses this information to track the subscriber""s usage of the system for billing purposes. If the caller was pre-paid, the SCP subtracts the number of units used from the pre-paid units available for the subscriber. If the caller was processed under the pay-per-use system, the charge is calculated by the telephone service provider and included in the caller""s telephone bill for the period. Billing techniques for such pay-per-use telephone connections are well known in the art of telephone service providers.
Authentication of pre-paid and pay-per-user callers is still performed by the ISP""s RADIUS server, as described above. However, in the present invention, the SCP generates a transaction identification (xe2x80x9cIDxe2x80x9d) that serves as a pseudo username and password. The transaction ID is a ten digit number chosen specifically to be an invalid telephone number. The SCP inserts the transaction ID into the calling party number (xe2x80x9cCgPNxe2x80x9d) field when the SCP instructs the SSP to proceed with call setup. Because such an invalid telephone number can only be placed in the CgPN field by the telephone service provider, the ISP will identify the caller as being billed through the telephone system and not the ISP. When a pre-paid or pay-per-use call is terminated to the ISP""s multi-line hunt group, the RADIUS server authorizes connection to the ISP""s services because the CgPN is recognized as a transaction ID generated by the SCP.
It is an object of the present invention to provide Internet access to subscribers on a pre-paid basis as well as on a pay-per-use basis.
It is a further object of the present invention to use an Advanced Intelligent Network to provide and manage Internet access to subscribers on a pre-paid basis as well as on a pay-per-use basis.
It is another object of the present invention to provide Internet access to subscribers on a pre-paid basis as well as on a pay-per-use basis without prohibitively increasing overhead for Internet Service Providers.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an integrated bill to subscribers obtaining access to multiple Internet Service Providers on a pre-paid basis and a pay-per-use basis.
These and other objects of the present invention are described in greater detail in the detailed description of the invention, the appended drawings and the attached claims.